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This is my second last session with the Walk ‘n Talk group of the Health and Wellness Hub and as usual, I see them returning to the Pat Cullinan Centre from the walk to Strathclyde Park as I walk up from my bus stop. I was asked by a few people if I had been walking with them? I say no, but I’d love to! So I intend or should I say Hope – to meet up with them at 10 o’clock on Thursday 30th which will be our last session for now.
Being the summer, the group members have had days away, holidays and other commitments- but that is fine, we had a small, but perfectly formed group today!

Yet again, I am struck by their friendliness, their warmth to each other, and to me. And again, they are in the news! The Motherwell Times did a two page spread on the community learning successes that includes the Walk n Talk group. This group is part of a Discovery programme for people over 50s and the Paths For All . We talked about following on from this Wee Read group with Lapidus Scotland training for anyone in the group who wants to take a shot at being a facilitator for reading and writing. I was delighted that I have at least one volunteer to do this!

The Motherwell Times spread with photos of some of the group proudly smiling at the Discovery Awards. See The Motherwell Times for details here “The Walk and Talk Group were recognised for their enthusiasm and commitment to improving the health and wellbeing of local residents through managing the weekly health walk.”

Today we did something different, we wrote up some of our lines onto one of the white boards and here are some of the lines inspired by Emily Dickinson’s poem, ‘Hope Is the thing with feathers’. We had talked about what we would hope for…here are our Lines of Hope:
Birds sing even when the weather is bad, we should sing then too.

Hope springs eternal.

There has been a time in my life when all I had was hope. It was the light at the end of the tunnel.When I had hope, I had everything.

I hope for light on the chillest day.

I would hope for health for my family… and that the senseless wars end.

Like a wee flower opening up…

Flowers are my life.

I am looking forward with a tinge of sadness, to our last session this summer. Let’s see what we can write on the board then!!

At this workshop on person-centred care we heard Jamie Andrew tell his story of tragedy, amputation, recovery and hope. Jamie told us how he endured five days perched in a storm on a tiny ridge in the Alps. Tragically, the friend with him had died. Both of Jamie’s feet and hands were totally frostbitten.
He was in a bad way when he got to hospital and the amputations had to be done.

His moment of truth in a hospital in France was when he wondered “would I be better off dead?”. What made him decide to live? For people like myself who have faced suicidal thoughts in their everyday life I wanted to ask him, was there one thing that made him decide to live? He told me it was not just the one thing. No-one offered any counselling in his darkest times. He had talked about his girlfriend and his friend who had died and these people made him choose to recover.
There was also one person – an occupational therapist, who asked him the most important question : “What Would you like?” and he said, “To feed myself”.
The person got a bit of Velcro to make a strap for his arm, stuck a spoon in it and he was off.
He was able to do Something for himself. He went on to walk and eventually climbed the same mountain again.
We all felt inspired to listen to him and he made me reflect on how mental health has a lot to do with our physical health.
The quote that sticks with me is “Every challenge is a mental challenge”.
The lesson I take is that we humans are so powerful when we allow ourselves to be the best we can be. Like the Mandela quote that says :

” our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.”

Just started reading 'Germinal 'by Emile Zola, inspired by watching a film about artist Cezanne and Zola, who were friends. Germinal is about mining and poverty. It's written in what Zola called a Naturalistic style, it's very realistic! I skipped the long introduction, but expect to find out more about Zola's life and politics as I read on.Coming from Blantyre, a mining village in Lanarkshire, reading this has made me remember that my dad and two grandfathers were miners, also my step-Grandad, Wattie who helped to bring me up. I had a massive input from him ; he was a communist. The telling of this tale has made me actually go into the mine and scrunch myself into a ball, hunkering down under the walls to chip out some coal.It's fairly harrowing.So, from this,I wrote a poem today:

Buried beneath the earth,without a breath of fresh air,miners coal-tapping.

Fearing the world will fallon their heads suffocatingminers fighting for all.

Squatting; back-breaking work,no other choice for a living.Compressed; lung-black; stuck.

My father and grandfathers sat thereEnduring. Direst of dire.Nae wonder they were dour.

Their only fire, a lamp.no dry places, all were damp.

And, empty of all uplift,-but walking out of there,believing heaven waits.